Nathaniel Wallich

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Lithograph by TH Maguire

Nathaniel Wallich (actually Nathan ben Wolff ; born January 28, 1786 in Copenhagen , † April 28, 1854 in London ) was a Danish botanist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Wall. "

Life

Nathanael Wallich was the son of the Altona merchant Wulff ben Wallich (or Wolff Wallich), who had settled in Copenhagen. Here Nathan, who only called himself Nathaniel as an adult, studied medicine and botany with Martin Vahl . In 1807 he became a doctor in the Danish colony Frederiksnagor near Serampore in Bengal . He entered the service of the British East India Company and in 1814 became director of the Indian Museum in Calcutta and assistant to the botanist William Roxburgh in the Botanical Garden of Calcutta. Together with the missionary and orientalist William Carey , he began editing William Roxburgh's Flora Indica (1820). In his works Tentamen Flora Nepalensis Illustratae (1824-26), and Plantae Asiaticae Rariores (1830-32), he opened up the largely unknown flora of Nepal , with over 20,000 species .

In 1825 he explored the forests of western Hindustan , and from 1826 to 1827 he toured Ava and Burma . In 1828 he returned to Europe and brought numerous Indian plant species with him, which were distributed to all public herbaria in Europe and the USA .

Returning to India in 1834 , he was led an expedition to Assam to report on the tea cultivation there. In 1847 he left the East Indies again.

His son was the physician and biologist George Charles Wallich (1815-1899).

Honors

In 1820 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina and in 1822 of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1830 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences and in 1832 of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . Since 1833 he was a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences .

Taxa named after Wallich

The genus Wallichia Roxb was named in his honor . the plant family of the palm family (Arecaceae) and the Wallichfasan ( Catreus wallichii ) named.

Among others, the following plant species are named after Wallich:

Fonts

His main work is Plantae asiaticae rariores (London, 1829–32, 3 volumes with 300 engravings).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Judith M. Taylor, Jules Janick: Lorenzo Da Ponte and Nathaniel Wallich: Jews in the Enlightenment . Horthistoria.com
  2. ^ Ray Desmond: The European Discovery of the Indian Flora . Oxford 1994.
  3. ↑ biography (English)
  4. ^ List of members Leopoldina, Nathanael Wallich
  5. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed April 20, 2020 .
  6. ^ List of former members since 1666: Letter W. Académie des sciences, accessed on March 13, 2020 (French).
  7. ^ Members of the previous academies. Nathaniel Wallich. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on June 25, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Wallich, Nathaniel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolff, Nathan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish botanist
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1786
PLACE OF BIRTH Copenhagen
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1854
Place of death London